Federal Budget 2011

In anticipation of the release of the 2011 Federal Budget, the Calgary Chamber of Voluntary Organizations submitted a pre-budget briefto the Standing Committee on Finance that proposed the following three recommendations:

1. Continue to support and foster innovation in the nonprofit/voluntary sector

Nonprofits and charities often develop the best solutions to community problems. Innovation involves a level of risk and organizations may avoid new or innovative approaches in favour of traditional approaches that are lower risk but that may be less effective in the long run. Government must ensure that funding criteria are flexible enough to include innovative approaches and are open to an element of risk.

2. Ensure continued support for nonprofit sector labour force development initiatives

Budget 2011 can help provide continued, long term support for labour force development initiatives such as Human Resource Skill Development Canada’s (HRSDC) Sector Council Program that support organizations such as the HR Council for the Nonprofit Sector that helps ensure nonprofits and charities have access to the support and expertise they require to continue to meet the needs of Canadians.

CCVO also urges continued support for The Labour Market Development Agreement Program and Labour Market Agreement Program set up between the Federal Government and Provinces to ensure that provinces have the flexibility required to address labour force issues across all sectors.

3. Maintain the collection of essential data

Two Statistics Canada products, the Canada Survey on Giving, Volunteering and Partipication and The Satellite Account of Non-profit Institutions and Volunteering are among the few sources of data in the sector and we urge the government to continue its long term commitment to supporting these data collection tools.